Immerse yourself in white-knuckle car chases, visceral hand-to-hand combat and intense gunplay - it will take all this and more to become a made man.

Inspired by iconic Mafia lore, compelling characters and cinematic presentation pull you into the allure and impossible escape of life in the Mafia.

Enter the world of Empire City: World War II is raging in Europe and the 1940s architecture, cars, music and clothing all echo the period.

As time passes, hot rod cars, 50s fashion and some of the era's best music reflect the birth of a cool new era: the golden age of the American gangster.

Crime life

Mafia II puts you in control of Vito Scaletta, the son of Sicilian immigrants, who after returning home from World War II with an injury, enlists in a life of crime in the sprawling city of Empire Bay after discovering his sister and mother are struggling to pay back a large sum of money to a loan shark.

As this epic fable progresses you will meet some of the most powerful crime figures in Empire Bay's sordid history, make friends, enemies and be asked to put your loyalty to the Mafia to the ultimate test.

From the developers of the award-winning Mafia on PlayStation 2, Mafia II stunningly recreates the dark and unforgiving world of the mafia where clothing, cars, music and advertising are meticulously crafted to replicate life in an American city in the 1940s and 1950s. Have you got what it takes to lead a life of crime on PlayStation 3? Mafia II will answer that question.

Jimmy’s story

Exclusive to PlayStation 3, the Mafia II downloadable content pack, The Betrayal of Jimmy, puts you in control of Jimmy, the mob's clean-up man. The pack features a huge assortment of missions for you to sink your teeth into after you have completed Vito's storyline. Missions included in The Betrayal of Jimmy range from assassination jobs through to shoot-outs and heart pumping car chases. The pack also allows you to replay each mission as many times as you want to gain higher scores that are in turn posted on the Mafia II leaderboards via PlayStation Network.

The second downloadable game pack is called Jimmy's Vendetta. In it, your job is to clean up various messes around Empire Bay and deal with the fallout of incidents caused by the Italian and Irish mobsters. Much like The Betrayal of Jimmy, the types of missions range from high speed car chases to assassinations and bullet riddled shoot-outs on the streets of Empire Bay.

The Betrayal of Jimmy is a free downloaded included on the Blu-ray Disc releases of Mafia II.

Jimmy's Vendetta, is available to download from PlayStation Store today.

Start at the bottom

The story for Mafia II is split into two parts, the first of which opens on the World War II in the 1940s, where you are taken through a tutorial mission that helps you get to grips with the various controls in the game, such as using cover, shooting and climbing obstacles. Once completed, the action shifts to Empire Bay when you have returned as Vito to the city. Recruited by your old friend, Joe, you take on various missions including stealing cars, robbing jewellery stores and assassinating enemies.

Rather then leaping into the next chapter of the story - the 1950s - the game takes a clever twist. Here you are arrested for a crime you committed earlier in the game and sent to prison for nearly 10 years. While there you meet a number of new contacts and learn to box in secret underground fights held in the prison's laundry room. As the story progresses on the outside world, six years have since passed and you find yourself released early from prison to a world that has changed. Now, rock and roll has taken over the airwaves of Empire Bay, fast cars are on every street corner and the Mafia itself has changed.

Accepted into the notorious Falcone family, you're watched at every turn by the cops and missions become increasingly tougher. However, with a huge range of firepower at your disposal including shotguns, tommy guns, pistols and Molotov cocktails, you should be able to succeed in climbing to the top of the blood-stained ladder. If you find yourself in-between missions, you can explore the 10 square miles of map 2K Czech has painstakingly crafted in search of the many collectibles the game has to offer, including new clothing and covers for a famous magazine that still remains on shelves to this day.

There are up to 40 different vehicles to get behind the wheel of, plus a huge range of classic music tracks to listen to from artists such as Little Richard, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters.